Not a Grand Year, but Roger Federer Still Has a Shot at Major Feats

It has not quite been a great year for Roger Federer. How could a player of his historic heft call any season great when he fails to win a Grand Slam title?

But it has been — without a doubt — a surprising, resurgent, deeply impressive year, and Federer has a chance over the next five weeks to make it genuinely special.

At the advanced tennis age of 33, Federer has a fighting chance of catching Novak Djokovic to become the oldest year-end No. 1 in history and could also help Switzerland win the Davis Cup for the first time in a grand French venue and raucous atmosphere worthy of the occasion.

Along the way, he is quite capable of extending his men’s record by winning a seventh year-end championship at the World Tour Finals in London.

“Lots of candy to put in the trick-or-treat basket near the end of the year,” said Tony Godsick, Federer’s longtime agent. “He will try to do as much as he can, but I don’t think anyone questions his scheduling. He’s a master of that, so we’ll see. It’ll be a lot.”

Federer’s understanding of the limits of his body and his psyche has been essential to his remaining remarkably free of major injury.

But there could be temptation to overdo it from here. Federer is scheduled to play in his hometown — Basel, Switzerland — this week and at the indoor Masters 1000 event in Paris the following week. After that, he would get a one-week break before the London tournament, followed immediately by the Davis Cup final in Lille, to be played in a converted soccer stadium.

That may sound like too much tennis, particularly if Federer wants to be at his sharpest for the Davis Cup final against France.

“I think if somebody can do it all, then Roger is the one who can do it,” his coach Severin Lüthi said in a telephone interview. “But it’s still possible that if he, say, wins Basel or really goes deep and wouldn’t feel 100 percent, then he would maybe skip Paris. It’s a big advantage that this year there’s a week off between Paris and London.”

Federer is hardly the only superstar with tough choices to make. Rafael Nadal is in the draw in Basel despite appendicitis, which is apparently going to require surgery soon, and it looks risky for him to be taking a chance that the appendix will rupture, which could be a serious matter.

True, Nadal has a contract with the Basel tournament and missed it last year. True, it has been, on balance, a frustrating season for him, with the big exception of his French Open title, his ninth. But at this stage, it would seem wiser for him to get healthy and regroup for 2015.

As for Djokovic, who is in a strong position to finish at No. 1 for the third consecutive year, his wife, Jelena, is due to give birth soon to their first child. If it happens before the end of the season, will Djokovic skip Paris or even the World Tour Finals in London — which would open the door wide for Federer — or will he play on?

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Novak Djokovic returned a shot during his semifinal match against Federer at the Shanghai Masters earlier this month.CreditZhong Zhi/Getty Images

“Strange things could happen,” said Brad Gilbert, a coach and an ESPN analyst.

Cilic demolished Federer, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals, wrecking Federer’s chances this year of adding to his record total of 17 Grand Slam singles titles. His last came at Wimbledon in 2012.

He might still be deflated if Mayer had converted on one of those five match points in Shanghai. But Mayer’s best chance, a short backhand, struck the tape, and Federer clicked into a higher gear.

This season clearly represents progress, best exemplified by Federer’s record against top-10 opponents. He was 4-10 against them in 2013 but is 13-4 this year.

His chronic back problems have not resurfaced. A larger-headed racket has clearly helped him regain some power and precision. Adding his boyhood idol Stefan Edberg to his coaching team on a part-time basis has helped Federer’s volleying, attacking game and, so it seems, sense of well-being.

“One of the most important things is that he’s healthy, that he’s got his back under control,” Lüthi, one of his coaches, said. “That was the big, big problem last year because suddenly, if you are not 100 percent, then you are starting to maybe do different movements, and then you are always thinking of how to move and how to play.”

Federer is more often driving his one-handed backhand instead of slicing it this year.

“He’s taking a lot more cuts down the line with it, too, and doing it a lot earlier in matches,” Gilbert, the analyst, said. “He’s starting to chip and charge a bit, coming in a lot more, trying to shorten the point.

“But I think more than anything, he just really enjoys his tennis, loves competing. People say maybe he can’t win another big one. Father Time gets everyone, but I’m telling you, he’s an incredibly young 33.”

Gilbert once coached Andre Agassi, who went on to become the oldest No. 1 in history at 33 years 4 months. Federer just might surpass him if he can play well in Basel, where Djokovic is not entered, and make up more points in Paris or London.

But returning to No. 1, where Federer has already spent a record 302 weeks, is surely not the main priority.

“It’s not in Roger’s hands maybe to be No. 1,” Lüthi said. “But for sure, if there’s a chance, he’s going to anyway do his best. It would be a bonus, but it’s not the main goal.”

That must be the Davis Cup. As if to underscore it, he spent three days last week training on red clay indoors (the same surface to be used for the final in Lille) before returning to hardcourts. Lüthi said Federer might have another short clay-court camp between Paris and London.

“If not for this, he would not have played on clay for six months,” said Lüthi, the Swiss Davis Cup captain. “I think this really helps him remember how to play on it.”

He has played plenty in 2014, and despite last year’s slide, he clearly remembers how to be a major factor on any court, even with gazillions in the bank and four children now in tow.

It has not quite been a great year, but it would already make for quite a scrapbook. Time to fill the last few empty pages.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: Not a Grand Year, but Federer Still Has a Shot at Major Feats. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe